Chapter 2 of To Be is up! Please read and review at the end. Enjoy!
Second Day of the State Alchemy Exams- Questioning
Loud knocking woke up Hibiki and Genji.
"Hibiki, Genji, wake up! We have to go now! Winry just called and said that she's coming this afternoon. We have to go now!" Hibiki only groaned. "Hibiki! Genji! Wake up! Now!"
"I'm up, I'm up!" Hibiki groaned. "Genji, it's time to get up."
"Brother, I'm already up. It's you who needs to get up." Genji was already out of his pajamas and dressed up to go and was now dragging Hibiki out of the bed.
Outside, Kira and Washi could hear what was going on inside. Bangs and crashes and muffled voices were coming from the door. Finally, the two came out from the room.
"Took you long enough. There are probably a lot of people there already. And we're supposed to meet Winry later. Come on." She pushed everybody out of the hotel and took off running.
"Last one there has to treat Winry to Rush Valley!"
"Hey, no fair Kira!" Hibiki chased after her.
"Wait for me Brother!"
"Hey, wait for me too!"
Kira and Hibiki tied for first and Genji and Washi were tied for second.
"Poor Winry. She doesn't get to go to Rush Valley. Everybody was tied." Kira pouted. "Oh well." The group joined the line to where they were going to be questioned.
It was Washi's turn. He was nervous.
"You'll be fine." Said Kira.
It almost was Hibiki's turn. Kira was worried.
"Hibiki, what if they recognize you and or Genji?" she whispered.
"They won't, I have black hair with dark brown eyes, Genji is the same, we're wearing the clothes we have from the other world, and we've changed a little." He passed through the doors.
"I'm worried about Brother." Kira reassured Genji.
"Don't worry, he's been through this before, remember?" It was Genji's turn to go in. She gave him a light shove. He nervously went in.
"Your friend that just went in took the Exams before?" came a vice from behind Kira. It was the man from before. She ignored him.
"He must have failed. He's probably failed more than once." Kira still ignored him.
"Hey, pay attention when I'm talking to you!" He was still ignored. He snapped. He curled his fingers to make a fist and brought it up. Then, the fist began to go downward. It connected. A loud crack filled the air. There was a cry of pain.
"Aww look, you broke my automail." Kira feigned despair. There was a 3-inch long crack on the surface. "My mechanic's going to kill me." She scratched a transmutation circle onto the metal plate, flashing the surrounding people a smile. "I'll just quickly fix it and trust you all to not tell her. She hates alchemy done on the automail. It's a secret." She waved, and vanished behind the doors, leaving behind stares.
Once the doors closed behind her, the happy façade evaporated, turning into a serious expression. There was a giant transmutation circle on the floor with a gold chair in the middle.
"Kira how was your questioning?" Hibiki asked, as Kira emerged from the exit doors.
"It was too long." She answered back stretching in sunlight. "Where are Genji and Washi?
"Genji went to pick up Winry a while ago and they went shopping. Poor him. Having to go shopping with her. They should be here any minute. And Washi went back to the hotel he said he was tired." Pretty soon, the "two" shoppers came. Both of them were laden with bags.
"Winry, how much did you buy? And is that all clothes?" Hibiki asked.
"No, some of them are jewelry."
Only when the group went to the hotel and Winry and Genji gratefully put down their bags did Kira and Hibiki realize exactly how much Winry bought. Hibiki gaped at the mass amounts of clothes. Kira was leaning against the wall looking unconcerned, but one could tell she was disturbed.
"Who first, who first?" Winry wondered. "I know!" She grabbed Kira and some bags and dragged them, person and all, to the bathroom. Then, Kira registered what had just happened.
"LEMME OUT!" she screeched. She yanked the door open, which gave her a big purple bruise to nurse. She stumbled back in. When her head stopped spinning, she opened the door only to find it barred on the other side.
"Not until you try on all the clothes. After each outfit, you come out and let me see what it looks like one you." Winry's voice replied. "You can only skip the clothes I tell you to. If you do that without me telling you, that wouldn't be good, and we don't want that. Tomorrow is the most important day. You have to make a good impression." Kira gave a groan and slid down the side of the door. It was going to be a long day.
Hibiki and Genji were outside the open door of Kira's hotel room, after going through their own tortuous clothes trying, to hear arguing inside.
"Winry, I am not going to wear this tomorrow, nor ever!"
"But it looks nice on you! You should wear different colored clothes more often."
"No."
"But you should. It's the truth."
They entered to see Kira wearing a red tank top with a darker red pants. Kira squeaked, and rushed back into the bathroom. Winry smirked.
"You do know that all of the clothes are out here, right?" A silent wailing could be heard from inside the room. Kira slowly came out, grabbed her usual clothes and rushed back. When she came out, she stepped up to Winry.
"No crazy colors of any kind. You came keep those for yourself. Black and gray will suit me just fine." Winry sighed. She couldn't talk Kira out of that one.
"Fine." They argued about what Kira should wear tomorrow over the, thankfully for Kira, few black and gray clothes. Finally, they settled down to a choice of one outfit.
"Now, the jewelry." When Winry said that Kira groaned.
"No. Clothes, fine, but jewelry? No. Definitely no." Winry pleaded and wheedled until Kira grudgingly said, "I give up! You're too hard to argue against. But I'm doing the choosing now." And let Winry drag her back into the bathroom with, yet, another bag.
Kira immediately discarded the bright colored objects. Then, excluded some heavy looking jewelry. After them, went the fancy ones, and after those went the ones that Kira promised herself that she would never wear. That pretty much narrowed the pile to three pieces of jewelry. Two bracelets, one, simple, thin, and black, the other black with white and gray vines intertwining around the whole bracelet, and a necklace with a black granite carved likeness of a rose petal. Winry chose the bracelet with the vines. Kira slipped it into her pocket. Winry frowned, but didn't say anything, knowing that Kira would wear it tomorrow and exited the small room with said person behind her.
"Done?" Hibiki asked. The two nodded. "Good, Washi's outside the door waiting. He said he would treat us all to a late dinner." Silently Kira walked out with Winry a few steps behind her striking a conversation with Washi about automail. He seemed pretty interested in it.
Third Day of the State Alchemy Exams- Showing Your Skill
Kira and the others were among a mass crowd of people, waiting to begin.
"In the area marked inside the borders, you may use the land as you please to do a transmutation. There should be all the materials you need here for the Exams. You may begin." Everybody scattered and went to the area where they excelled. Some people like Washi headed toward the river where there was water, when people like Hibiki and Genji headed to the mines where metal was. Others, like Kira like to work with a bit of everything stepped toward the center. Everybody else went to the various places where they could show the best of their alchemical skill.
Washi drew a transmutation circle on the ground and placed his hands on the edges. Water from the river flowed out and began twisting into different shapes. First a dove, then a panther, many animals followed before the water settled and froze into the form of a tiger, glistening in the sun.
Close to where Washi was, Hibiki and Genji were transmuting their own thing. Hibiki clapped and created a life-size of the armor that Genji was stuck in for four years until after, that incident. It was very detailed and look ready to step off the pedestal it was on and walk around, hollowly clanking just like the real thing. Genji shook his head and smiled. He had created a pure silver horse with wings. Now, he clapped and put some of his soul into it. It instantly came alive and flaring its nostrils, it leaped off the ground and flew up into the sky like a lark, but as the transmutation begun of wear off, it turned around and went into a gentle descent and landing softly. Genji patted its nose before slowly turn back into a cold, silver lifeless figure again.
Nearby, Kira watched them all. When they and a good population of the people were done with their transmutation, she begun hers. She drew a large and detailed complex circle, carefully forming each line and curve. Then, she walked to the edge, not smearing or blurring any lines, and activated the circle. It began glowing yellow. A block of metal twisted into a wrinkle trunk and started sprouting branches, water and earth, mixed to form leaves, then metal writhed and placed itself so the leaves were covered with a thin sheet of metal. When the glow of the transmutation died, there stood a shimmering tree, leaves rustling in the wind. Kira walked to the tree, which was in the center of the circle and broke off a leaf. Observing it and balancing it in her hand, she appeared satisfied. She altered some lines in her circle and activated it again. This time, everything was in reverse. Water and earth went back to where they originally came from, as did the metal. Kira was wiping the circle clean when a wind blew the remains of the chalk circle away. When the wind faded, there was no sigh visible of the circle or tree. It and Kira made sure of that. Then, she joined her friends and they all walked to the building where they would tell whether they passed and was part of the military, or they failed and packed their bags home.
Chatter and nervousness filled the air of the room. There were three doors. They were the entrance, the one that led to the temporary dorms, which was the one to the left, and the one that led deeper in the military Central headquarters, which was the one that was to the right. Some faces were portraying a nervous expression, some of them just masks, most of them genuine.
When everyone was in the building, a military official said quite loudly, "We will now begin." The room quickly quieted all eyes on the official. He called out names of people who, most of them were shown the door to the left.
"Hazuki Kirarena." She felt her breath catch in her throat. She managed to squeeze out a few words.
"Wish me luck. I'll meet you on the other side."
The official took a long time getting her papers. She bowed her head. She had failed. When the official handed the papers to her, she already knew what they said and didn't bother looking at them. She just trudged to the left door.
"Excuse me, miss. I do believe you are going the wrong way." The official had spoken to her. She froze. Almost too scared to look, she glanced at her papers. A grin broke on her face. Instead of a temporary dorm number, there was an office, rank, and an official dorm number! She had passed! She felt like running and did, remembering to bow and say thanks. When she burst through the door, she slowed down to a halt and switched expressions. Now, she was calm, cool, and collected. She quickly read the papers.
The first paper only said with a map diagram of the headquarters:
Office: Fuhrer's OfficeSuperior: Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist
The second page was an extremely long letter, basically summarized was "Welcome the Military".
Following the map diagram, she made her way to the Fuhrer's Office were she was supposed to work. When she approached the door she knocked and entered.
Illidan the Half Demon- Thanks for the review! I appreciate it!
Well, there you have it! Chapter 3 is at its end.
Note: I think its only fair that I tell you all. I guess I have most of the story written already. Sorry if there are any mistakes in the story! If you have any comments or complaints, please tell me!
And remember, please review whether it is comments of complaints.
Thank you all for reading!
-Dark Reborn